I have been tinkering with Linux programs a bit and have several goals justifying a switch from Windows.

This Thread addresses one goal: to find a way to play the latest clunky Quicktime videos without having to get a faster computer (it's an old P3 with 500 Mhz - I do have potentially faster stuff in storage, but I need to fix a motherboard problem, and haven't yet had the time).

Is there a live Linux distro that has the ability to play these clunky files (they may be quicktime 6) without freezing up the video on an older computer like the quicktime program does in Windows? I know of mplayer and xine - I tried xine on Puppy, but it's missing something for the quicktime video - it referred to MIME.

(I'm a total novice at setting up the programs on Linux - I'm still trying to get an obscure Encore wireless usb card to work, so I'm still on the web via Windows).

Thanks

This is potentially a loaded question

A Live Distro with the necessary codecs to playback the latest quicktime files (which I assume may include the excellent commercials you can watch on their website?). Recently Knoppix released a new version of their LiveCD, there are also quite a few other LiveCDs out there that boast multimedia support (check distro watch's LiveCD section). The problem you'll probably run into with multiple LiveCDs is whether they include the codecs necessary to play these files, not a player capable of playing these files.

Give Knoppix a whirl, if it doesn't work out, there are instructions on their website (http://knoppix.net) that discuss how to remaster a CD with different packages, you could then include the mplayer codecs which *might* be the way to go.

HTH

Cool

Thanks for the info,

I subscribe to a guitar magazine which issues lessons cds and they changed their format to Quicktime from basic WMP videos, complicating things for me. I'm downloading Knoppix and will try it.

I now have an extra hard drive that I can install a Linux program to, but again the speed is limited. Suse ran slow on the 500 Mhz. Would any permanant installations be desirable for this kind of use?